CELEBRATE YOUR PRESS-URE!

[prophetess m. brignac]

I'm sure that no one will deny that the people of God are being assaulted, tried, and proven on every side, by every form and manner of testing and tribulation, especially those who are in ranking leadership positions, and have the oversight of the flock. Never before have so many servants and handmaidens of the Lord, who genuinely love Him, and are sold out to their charge, been so discouraged, disillusioned, confused and confounded, and near hopelessness, ready to extinguish their "lamp stand",and padlock their Church doors, put their instruments in storage,or sell or give them away, and just go and "do Church" with somebody else, under someone else's vision, because the weight of the ministry has become too over-whelming, "unrewarding", under appreciated and too expensive a price to pay ,to bless people who, seemingly, could care less, and who demonstrate a great deal,of disrespect, nonchalance, and irreverence for their leaders and even for God, Himself! In spite of the abundant billboards, baseball caps, Bible covers, vanity plates,hoodies, long sleeved T-shirts, throw backs, short sleeved T'shirts, stuffed monkeys, key chains, and other assorted paraphernalia that bear the slogan "I'm TOO BLESSED TO BE STRESSED!",that sounds good, preaches good, and can be put to "lyrics" really nicely, that just does not seem to be the manifest truth, considering the consistently evident, heavy weight, sadness, frustration, short tempers, anxiety, depression, and related physical infirmities that are overflowing our places of worship! There are reasons why the praise team have to go into maximum over-drive to provoke the saints to engage in a worship experience effective and powerful enough to invoke the Holy Spirit to drop down, stop by,and drop in, so that deliverance and restoration can be available for whosoever will, and that, usually, is because the combined heaviness, oppression, anguish, and other negative emotions that come in on the people, ensnare and sabotage the atmosphere, and hinder it from being made fertile and conducive for God, in His perfect Holiness, to penetrate and enter through the "gross darkness"! There's a cause, as to why the man or woman of God has to preach, or exhort themselves into a seizure, to break or snap the spine of the devil, and purge the atmosphere, just so they can have liberty behind the sacred desk, and the Word they bear in their mouths will genuinely have "free course"! There's a reason that sometimes, the Teacher, Preacher, or Reacher themselves have to labor so hard in the ministering of the Word, and slip into the 'zone", in which they nor you, know whether "they be absent or present", and that the people don't understand, and it's because they're not just bombarding heaven and blasting off missiles of the Word just for YOU, but because the pressure they have in their OWN lives, combined with the burdens they are accountable for laboring with, in the lives of the people assigned to them, dictate and demand that they violently, and relentlessly, reach "high" in, and for God, just to prevent the "press-ure" from consuming and destroying them, because they have no "super hero" powers, and are subject to, and the victim of, the same hurts, failures, attacks, defeats, and "flesh" moments as you, only with more intensity, because after crying out for themselves and their households, they still have to go up a little higher, in supplications and intercession, to beseech the Lord for what ails you and yours, and the "Church" at large, and THAT IS 'PRESS-URE"!

Pressure, in and of itself, is not necessarily,a bad thing, but when it builds to a level where it can no longer be contained by whatever type of vessel it is found in, the "container/vessel" will explode from the inside out, and the projectile from the fragments of the burst container, can potentially damage other things or people,and this is why those things, deliberately created to bear pressure, or that operate by pressure, have some sort of "pressure valve" as a safety measure. It is the pressure of certain biological or anatomical systems in our bodies, that prevent our blood pressure from "blowing our heads off", maintaining the correct pressure ,or blood volume in our veins and arteries, and keeping our eyes functioning properly. Whenever any of these "pressure" systems malfunction, the body malfunctions, and sets off a chain reaction, that will require skilled intervention to prevent a crisis, or a tragedy. There are "pressure systems" on large bodies of water or in the atmosphere,that, if not properly regulated, play a role in storms of all magnitudes. There are mental pressures, which are very delicate, and potentially devastating, even in their aftermath,because they're not always detectable by the untrained eye, and the person being assaulted by them, may be clueless as to what's really coming against them. These are the "pressures" that lead to "nervous breakdowns", "shipwrecks", "crash and burns",and "all systems" malfunctions, and even though nobody wants to talk about this particular affliction, they are absolutely prevalent in the Church, especially in and around the pulpit! Elijah, most likely had, or was on the brink of a nervous breakdown when he skipped town, and went and holed up in a cave for a minute. Rizpah had the same symptoms as she bravely, and with great determination, fanned the flies, and fought the wild beasts off of her dead boys' corpses! Many of David's Psalms carried the flavor of a man in need of therapy and a prescription for "Xanax"! Job, most assuredly, would've 'been admitted" and treated for emotional overload, had he suffered what he did then, at any point in the past few decades! It's not the "reason" for the press-ure that we need to be concerned about, but rather how we RESPOND to it! There's no question as to how we respond to our "blessings" that come in "good measure , "PRESSED DOWN", and shaken together, but when trouble comes in the same pattern, we waiver, quiver, and give away all of our strong confidence, hope, and faith power to the devil, by allowing the pressure to work "against" us, instead of FOR us! The Lord has given us everything that pertains to life and godliness, including a few "pressure valves", BUT IF YOU HAVEN'T DISCOVERED HIM IN THE RIGHT DIMENSION, OR REVELATION, OF WHO HE REALLY IS, YOU'LL NEVER DISCOVER THE DEPTH OF YOUR PRESSURE VALVES AND HOW TO MAKE THEM WORK FOR YOU!

When preparing one's clothes, if you're one concerned about neatness and tidiness,after washing and drying one's laundry, you usually "iron" out the wrinkles before actually putting them on. The whole process of "ironing" is the APPLYING OF THE PROPER OR CORRECT PRESSURE FOR THAT GARMENT, THE APPLICATION OF THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF "HEAT" FOR THAT GARMENT, AND PERHAPS, THE CORRECT AMOUNT OF STARCH FOR THAT PARTICULAR PIECE YOU'RE "GETTING READY TO "USE"! There WAS A TIME,and it's still the preference for some,like myself, that you spent a good 'minute" on a pair of jeans,because those creases had to be sharp enough to "shave a grizzly bear's chin" with, so you had to skillfully apply the correct amount of PRESS SURE, in order to get the desired SURE-PRESS! If you really wanted to take the crease to the next dimension, you sprayed them with starch and added another kind of heat, called "steam", which meant that now, this helpless piece of cloth was being subjected to being stretched out on a hard ironing board, sprayed with a substance from a pressurized can, that was supposed to make sure the creases "persevered", rolled over, for about 5 minutes, with a fire hot iron, while being sprayed with hot steam, just so they could be worn or "used"! If you did those jeans "right", something phenomenal would happen,because after you starched them that final time, and took them off the ironing board, those jeans could almost STAND ON THEIR OWN after all they had been through, and that's what the pres-sure in your life is designed to do! LET THEM STRETCH YOU! LET THEM TRAP YOU BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE, BECAUSE IT IS THE "ROCK" THAT'S YOUR REFUGE! LET THEM COMPOUND YOUR PAIN WITH ALL MANNER OF FIRE AND HEAT! LET THEM "SPRAY" YOU WITH OR SPEW OUT OF THEIR MOUTHS,WHATEVER VILENESS THEY WILL., BECAUSE WHEN IT'S OVER, YOU'RE GOING TO STAND AND STAND, THEREFORE, NOT NEEDING ANYONE OR ANYTHING, SAVE, WHAT GOD WILL ALLOW TO BE A PART OF YOUR STORY AND YOUR JOURNEY! Don't run to a cave, and don't take down, no matter how bad things may look for you, because you're destined for a "SURE-PRESS! Your Press-sure" comes to ask you, "WHAT IF?" What IF you lose that house, can God not PRESS OUT another one? What IF no job manifests tomorrow or next month, can God not still send the ravens? What IF all the saints went on "strike" and withdrew their tithes and support, is He no longer Jehovah--Jireh?" What IF He doesn't heal the cancer, or prevent the death that you dread of your loved one,is He any less God? What IF your elevation never comes from that ministry in which you've served so faithfully, for years, and been so overlooked, does HE NOT STILL MASTER IN "DUE SEASONS"? You see there's one more thing that the "press-sure" is assigned to do, and that's to try your "sureness"! We've heard all,of your boastful testimonies, and we've seen you go through getting your lights turned off, and a "cyst" dissolved, but that was just a "press", but what God's looking for now, is your real endurance and commitment, which can only be proven through "press-ure"! Is that hot steam, of a broken marriage, or a failed economy that is jeopardizing all you've worked for the past 20 years, or the report of "possible malignancy" on your routine exam provoking a "yet praise", which is the "pressure release valve" that will keep you "in it to win it", and focused on the "Author and Finisher "of your faith? Is the maximum heat reserved for "fine linens" of knowing that your leaders are meeting behind your back to find a way to get rid of you, working to your good as the "press-sure" that will propel you into the very heartbeat of God in worship and peaceful adoration? If you're going to be be "hung high" and "stretched wide" anyway, and you shall be,, have the wisdom, and pray for the strength, to endure the hardness, unmovable,and unshakable, until you're secure in your complete "sure-press" that will bring you out standing on your own!
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